Vault and Time (historical) - PJR027.pdf - The Whispering Vault - Dimzard

T HE V AULT AND T IME

The Sanguine Seal is a trademark of Alex Gray, used with permission.

The Whispering Vault created by Alex Gray.

T HE V AULT

AND T IME

W RITTEN BY

Chad Brinkley

E DITED BY

Jonathan Nichol and Philip Reed

P ROOFREADING BY

Dr. Jest

C OVER AND BACK COVER ART BY

Christopher Shy

I NTERIOR ART BY

Robert Cram, Fil Kearney,

Pat Loboyko, Larry MacDougall,

Brad McDevitt, Dave Mackay,

Laura Pelick, and Christopher Shy

P RODUCTION BY

Philip Reed

W ELCOME

The Vault is timeless. As has been men-

tioned in previous Whispering Vault products,

Hunts can take place in the past, present, or

future.

This supplement assists gamemaster in the

running of Hunts set in our past. In addition to

suggestions and a timeline, five sample eras

are provided.

T HE V AULT IS E TERNAL

I remember the days when I used to fear time. I saw it ravage my mother,

tearing at her skin with sharp talons and wearing away her mind like tides

taking the cliffs by the sea. But I now see time for what time is – a shattered

mirror whose individual fragments reflect all that has gone before and all

that is yet to be. I no longer fear these shards of memories and prophecy

for I have found the paths between them.

Due to the Stalkers’ status as defend-

ers of the Dream, they are granted access

to all of time and space. The Unbidden

can transgress the Realm of the Flesh at

any point and so a Hunt could legitimate-

ly take place anywhere and at any time.

While this provides a great deal of flexi-

bility for gamemasters designing an

adventure, it can also be somewhat intim-

idating. Running a game set in an histori-

cal period requires that gamemasters have

at least a passing familiarity with the time

in question so that they can convey some

of the flavor the setting has to offer.

Gamemasters cannot be expected to have

immediate knowledge of every period

they might wish to set a game in and

research can be time consuming. This

chapter is intended to provide gamemas-

ters with some ideas as to how they might

go about running a Whispering Vault sce-

nario set in the past.

to think that just providing the characters

with a playground will be enough to satis-

fy them. Players must have action and

direction as well as time and location.

Thus, it is appropriate to stage a Hunt in

the midst of the French Revolution, but

inappropriate to just have the Stalkers mill

about in the midst of the French

Revolution to see what happens.

Similarly, why go to the trouble of

constructing a well crafted set if you never

intend to use it? Sometimes gamemasters

will claim that they are using a setting

when they really are not. Stating that a

Hunt takes place in Ancient Egypt means

little if the characters never encounter any-

thing unique to the time period. Players

need some landmarks to remind them

what set they are on. Thus, in the course of

the Hunt, the characters could take a trip

on the Nile, watch the construction of a

pyramid, and trade riddles with the

Unbidden at the foot of the Sphinx.

K EEPING THE P ROPER

P ERSPECTIVE

An historical period is nothing more

then a backdrop against which the Hunt

takes place. Very much like the scenery of

a play, the setting of an adventure provides

a colorful surrounding and a set of props

to play with. Intricate and detailed settings

add depth and texture to an adventure, but

they can never stand alone. It is a mistake

S TYLE B EFORE

S UBSTANCE

One of the greatest worries gamemas-

ters have when running historical scenar-

ios is that they might not get all of the

details right. What was the monetary unit

in ancient Greece? Who was president of

the United States in 1929? What year was

the telephone invented?

Gamemasters live in fear of these

types of questions. They are afraid that if

they can not answer them, their adventure

will somehow lose its appeal or seem less

“real.” The problem becomes worse if one

of the players happens to know something

about the period in question. What hap-

pens if the players know more about histo-

ry then the gamemaster?

One thing to remember is that

Whispering Vault is a game which focuses

on the larger scope of things. Stalkers are

regularly fighting to hold the very fabric of

reality together. In comparison to that bat-

tle, what year the telephone was invented

will likely seem trivial. It is, therefore,

more appropriate to focus on the unique

flavor of a given historical period rather

then get bogged down in all of the details.

For example, what one of Ghengis Khan’s

Mongols has for dinner is probably not

going to be as interesting to the characters

as the barbaric way in which he eats it.

Furthermore, Stalkers (by their

nature) are not very likely to be interested

in most of the specific details relevant to a

given historical period. Their single mind-

edness in finding the Unbidden and cast-

ing them back into the Vault prevents the

Stalkers from seeking out famous person-

alities or indulging in politics unless it is

necessary for the Hunt. Also, when a Hunt

does require interaction with key individu-

als, they must tread lightly. Any action

taken by a Stalker outside the Temporal

Isolation of an Enigma may affect the

Chronosphere. This becomes twice as

likely when the Stalkers are interacting

with important figures in history. Of

course, the Forbiddance will prevent

Stalkers from taking actions seriously

injurious to the Chronosphere, but the

Forbiddance is not a loving tutor and a

misstep could end a Stalker’s career. Also,

due to their preternatural abilities, Stalkers

have little use for technology and many

mortal tools are useless to them.

Therefore, they will have little need to

concern themselves with when particular

objects were invented. Similarly, money is

not something most Stalkers will ever have

to deal with since they never really need to

buy anything. Thus, many of the questions

which could trouble a gamemaster are not

likely to come up.

the Dream create a Realm which is of nei-

ther Flesh nor Essence and which is

Temporally Isolated. Anomalies can exist

in these pseudo realities. Thus, an NPC

could use a phone ten years before they

were invented.

For some gamemasters, this solution

lacks elegance. Provided that it will not

interrupt the flow of game play, gamemas-

ters should feel free to admit they made a

mistake. Usually these mistakes will not

drastically affect the course of the Hunt

and taking care of them early will prevent

historic minded players from being upset

for the rest of the game.

Finally, if the players know more

about the period then the gamemaster, the

gamemaster should feel free to milk them

for information before play begins.

Perhaps the gamemaster could request the

player to write down some brief notes on

historical customs or important people

they would like to see come up in play.

This is one way in which the gamemaster

can make use of the player’s area of

expertise without giving away any details

of the Hunt. This will save the gamemaster

from doing unnecessary research and it

will make the players feel included.

Roleplaying is, after all, a group oriented

activity.

All of this is not to say, however, that

historical details should be deliberately

eliminated from the game. Some interest-

ing tidbits can add substance and make the

adventure more interesting. Gamemasters

who have such knowledge available

should feel free to use it as long as it does

not become the focus of the game. (Having

an NPC from the American Civil War

comment on President Lincoln’s foreign

policy is interesting, but having the

Stalkers follow Lincoln around and watch

his career progress in biographic fashion is

not.)

T HE U NSEEN

IN H ISTORY

Sometimes, a gamemaster will be

tempted to make an important historical

figure one of the Unseen. Though the

temptaion to make Ivan the Terrible a

slavering Unbidden is great, it should be

avoided. This is not only because

“Unbidden Ivan” cheapens human histo-

ry by making every important event the

“fault” of the Unbidden or the Stalkers,

but also because “Unbidden Ivan” is

nearly impossible cosmologically. (For

Despite the game’s focus, there will

inevitably be times when a gamemaster

fails to be historically accurate about

something. Perhaps an NPC phoned for

the police when telephones haven’t been

invented yet. One easy way of getting

around this problem without losing face is

to invoke the power of the Corruption. As

the rule book states, Enigmas Corrupting

Vault and Time (historical) - PJR027.pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: